Josh Morgan happy with Snyder’s stance on team’s name

Posted by Mike Florio on May 11, 2013, 5:53 PM EDT

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When Redskins owner Daniel Snyder opted for an all-caps “NEVER” regarding the possibility of the team changing its name, he risked galvanizing what has been a sputtering, disjointed, and half-hearted effort to alter it.

What he may have gotten was both a team and a fan base that will support him like never before.

Receiver Josh Morgan, a D.C. native, expressed pleasure over the development. “I grew up right down the street from RFK Stadium,” Morgan told LaVar Arrington and Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan. “As a matter of fact, I’m sitting here right now. All I know is the Redskins, so I’m glad we’re not going to ever change the name. . . .

“I’m happy,” Morgan added. “I was kind of getting scared when everyone started talking about the Redtails and all this other stuff. I was getting a little nervous about that.”

The chatter regarding the potentially offensive nature of the name won’t go away, now or perhaps ever. But those who see the word as reflecting only the name of the football team they love surely love the fact that Snyder won’t ever bow to whatever pressure comes his way.

Redskins was the name given to indians by early white settlers because of the red clay or mud they smeared on their skin, it’s not offensive in any way to those that bother to do more than 2-seconds of looking for the origins of the name.

For those that think Indians find it offensive then explain why so many reservation high schools name their teams the Redskins.

This is purely a politically correct BS campaign probably ran by some self hating white liberals who are explaining to indians and everyone else why they should be offended and how they can profit from it.

As a fan of the team I can’t imagine them without that name. I understand the potential offensive nature and I also understand that our fan base doesn’t think of it offensively at all. I also think however, that the ownership should be supporting every Native American cause they can possibly fathom. To show their respect.

As a huge Redskins fan, I say the name stinks. I would also say Dan Snyder is one of the worst people on the planet. People who are siding with Snyder should realize that there is something inherently wrong with that.

P.S. This mattress I bought 10 years ago at Six Flags is still in great shape, so I guess he’s not all bad.

Everyone should Google “Native American Chief Talks About Redskins”. If PFT would post that, the whole issue could be over. Unfortunately, there’s way too much money in non-Natives BSing around on the internet.
Choice quotes:
““People are speaking for Native Americans that aren’t Native American…we had a big problem with all the things that were coming out [of the discussion]…they were basically saying that we were offended, our people were offended, and they were misrepresenting the Native American nation… Redskin’ isn’t something given to us by the white man or the blue eyes, it was something in the Native American community that was taken from us. [It’s] used also as a term of respect, because that’s how we were. We respected each other with that term… It’s not degrading in one bit and that’s why I sent you guys an email. It just bothered me that somebody would twist something so negatively when it’s a positive.”

“[Much of the discussion over the Redskins name is led by non-Natives, and that makes me] Irritated. Irritated is a polite term to say… When you have people trying to represent our nation, you should be from our nation. Don’t represent our nation if you don’t even have an ounce of blood in you.”

And we’re done.

Dodson certainly doesn’t speak for all Natives, but his opinion about who should be speaking for all Natives seems very conclusive. And I think that about wraps things up here.

I heard Colin cowherd mention an expert at the smithsonian said the term redskin was initially an honorary term among Indians and was not derogatory. Sounds like this whole discussion is bc a bunch of white people trying to determine what should and should not be offensive to another race.

Words only have the power that people give them. Culturally, it is easy to recognize that when a racist uses the “n” word it is deeply offensive. However, when African Americans use it freely amongst themselves, it is just as easily recognized that in their use of the word it is not offensive.

Whatever the origin of the word “redskin,” it is not difficult to realize that it is not being directed at an individual as an insult or slander. It is being used to represent a team that it is a source of pride in its community in a sport where skill, intelligence, teamwork, loyalty, sportsmanship, resilience, and integrity are among the chief virtues valued by fans. That the community would recognize these traits in the Native American history of its region is a nod at the eventual admiration Americans developed for their culture, and in my mind no more moronic or offensive than the continued stupidity of referring to them as “Indians” in other sports franchises or popular culture. Yet they do not seem to have a problem with that.

It is up to an individual to decide whether or not they are offended. I have to think that this fight is more about winning what battles you can against a government and people whose actions towards you are as bad or worse as the country’s participation in slavery, and the fact that among the two atrocities, theirs is by far the least cared about. I get that. But that doesn’t mean the name is offensive. Far from it. Context people. Context.

For the record I don’t have a dog in this fight. Bronco fan. Could generally care less about the Redskins.

if the cheif on the helmet was red like the jersey that would be a bit racist but he is brown skinned like a real indian cheif would be. they arent degrading native americans…shoot if anything the should be honored they have 2 nfl teams refering to their heritage. white folks got the patriots the brothas got…well…they account for almost half the league so they dont need a team named after them.

The name does not need to change to satisfy the namby-pamby PC crowd, who really do not have history on their side. On the other hand, having to witness the blowhard statements from “logical” might cause the Skins’ faithful to consider adopting the name, Redfaces.

This will never be an issue unless the league office gets involved. And the Indian Tribes stop entering into sponsorship/advertising agreements for their casinos. Money is what will change it or stay the same.

Florio’s absolutely right. The “Chatter” is never going to go away because people like him will continue to make it a never ending media crusade to tell 90% of Native American’s that they don’t know what’s “offensive” to them or not and that white men in the media and a small minority of fellow Native American’s known better.

90% of the Native American population don’t find the use of the name for the sports team offensive. 80% of American’s in general don’t find it offensive. The vast majority of people who hear the term immediately think of a football team, not a negative connotation of native americans. It’s funny but you don’t see the Mike Florio’s of the world showing similar vigor decrying OTHER sports names that have a history of being a slur.

Yankee was (and still is) used in parts of the United States and around the world a pejorative ethnic slur. If the very nature that at one point in history a particular word was used somewhat regularly as a slur is enough to dictate a teams name should change, then why is the crusade singularly against the “Redskins”. Simple…it’s a transparent “feel good” crusade that is undertaken not because it actually makes a difference to the population its supposedly “offending” or because the individual has a sincere issue with it, but because the individual likes to lie to themselves about how caring they are while trying to stir up controversy and page hits.

In this….Florio isn’t any better than the 4 letters he often decries. In this, Mike Florio and Profootballtalk is on par with things like First Take; purposefully and needless provocative on non-issues simply to get attention.

But then again, this will mark itself as the 7th post about this subject that will magically be deleted off of ProFootballTalk’s comment section. When I first started responding I was doing so in an amazingly civil, purely fact based method…but when even being amazingly polite and academic in nature gets you deleted, why not just go ahead and speak ones mind.